China angry over Dalai Lama visit to disputed Tibetan border

India has provoked China's fury by allowing the Dalai Lama to visit a remote town near the disputed Tibetan border.

Buddhist monks and nuns spruced up their monasteries and hung up welcome banners and prayer flags in anticipation of the Dalai Lama's visit Photo: AP

By Dean Nelson in New Delhi

3:37PM GMT 06 Nov 2009

The Tibetan Buddhist leader will be welcomed by more than 800 monks and high lamas when he touches down in Tawang, a Tibetan town in India's Arunachal Pradesh which Beijing claims is part of China.

Chinese officials have made a series of increasingly aggressive statements condemning the visit as a provocative act and denouncing India for allowing it to go ahead.

China has also used the visit to reiterate its claim on large swathes of Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir. Chinese officials called for new talks to resolve their long-standing border dispute and accused India of arrogance over the issue.

Beijing's attacks have intensified since the middle of last month when officials launched a series of attacks on the Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh for visiting Arunachal Pradesh to campaign in the state elections.

Officials said Mr Singh had triggered a "disturbance" and warned India not to mistake China's patience for weakness.

India retaliated by warning Beijing its long-term relationship would suffer if it did not stop building dams in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, which India claims as its territory.

The two major Asian powers are locked in a battle for regional domination, with China so far winning the upper hand. It has tied a "string of pearls" around India by building strategic deep-sea ports in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, while increasing its influence with Nepal.

According to Indian analysts this latest series of clashes between Beijing and New Delhi reflects China's concerns that India's rapid growth will overtake its own in the next two decades.

The seeds of the current row over Arunachal Pradesh date back to the British Raj when colonial officials drew the McMahon Line as the boundary between India and China.

The Line was agreed between British and Tibetan officials at the Shimla Convention in 1913, but China has never accepted the treaty and still claims Tawang as part of its Tibetan Autonomous Area.

Chinese foreign ministry officials said they remained firmly opposed to the Dalai Lama's visit which they regarded as an attempt to highlight India and China's differences over the border state.

"China's stance on the eastern section of the China-India border is consistent, and we firmly oppose the Dalai Lama's visit to the region. This further exposes the Dalai clique's anti-China and separatist nature," said Ma Zhaoxu, a foreign ministry spokesman.

It amounted to an attempt to damage China's relationship with its neighbour but "will not succeed," he added.

A spokesman for the Dalai Lama rejected Beijing's claims and said the visit was spiritual.

"It is purely a religious visit, His holiness Dalai Lama's visit to Tawang should not be seen through a political prism. He is not going to meet any political leaders. The Indian government has already made a statement in this regard. We disapprove of the Chinese allegations," said Tashi Wangdu, Secretary of the Bureau of The Dalai Lama in New Delhi.